Elissa & Katherine talk ... bravery
a new series for readers and writers
You have been there, if you are lucky.
You meet someone and you know in an instant: this person is a friend. You’re separated by an ocean. You rarely see each other in person. It doesn’t matter.
You do events together, you have public conversations. Then you have private conversations about everything from writing authentically and publishing wisely, to managing the expectations of readers, and what it means to be a working writer in a complicated, ever-changing creative environment.
This is exactly what happened when I met Katherine May back in 2022, although I’d long been a fan from the day I listened to her extraordinary conversation with Krista Tippett, at the height of the pandemic. Katherine invited me to be a guest on her podcast, and when the recording was over, we kept talking (and talking). Months later, Katherine came to the States for an extended Wintering tour, during which we did an event together at Barnswallow Books in Rockport, Maine. More talking, long after the official conversation was over.
As Katherine writes over on her wonderful substack, The Clearing, it’s accurate to say that we have both been around the proverbial block where our writing careers are concerned, and indeed, neither of us has the temperament for public tantrums. That Katherine is in England and I am here in the States makes no difference: our writing lives run the gamut from glorious to maddening, delightful to fraught. Which is why we spend a lot of time in behind-the-scenes conversations, unraveling their complexities.
A while ago, we thought What would happen if we pressed the record button on our chats about writing and the writing life? So we have: in November, we decided to make these conversations public, and the result is a new series that we hope you will enjoy. Our video conversations (the first is below) will appear without a paywall in both of our feeds, and, we hope will offer a close look at the writer’s life during a time when everything creative (and otherwise) seems to be changing by the day.
What this will not be is a craft conversation; Katherine and I are simply thinking out loud about what it means to be a writer today, and trying to make sense of it. I hope that those of you who are members of the writing community will find our insights helpful and even hopeful.
This month, we’re talking about the idea of bravery in writing. As writers who touch on deeply personal subjects, we both regularly get asked how we find the courage to do so, and the answer is never straightforward. There is the actual How do you do it question that inevitably comes up, and then the What makes you think you should, the latter of which lies at the heart of my next project, on creative permission.
During this conversation, Katherine and I get deep into the bravery question. Sometimes, we go off-topic, which, we agree, is the point of these conversations!
You can either listen via the Substack podcast feed, or watch the video here if you prefer (there’s an option to turn on captions if you click ‘CC’). Please don’t forget to follow Katherine over at The Clearing, as well.
We have included the video and the transcription and audio. We hope that you enjoy.
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WHAT A TREAT
Loved it.